Thursday, February 24, 2011

With the many challenges members of the transgender community face, the cost of the surgeries may be one less obstacle.

Over the past few years, there has been a shift in many company insurance policies to cover at least one transgender surgery, be it breast augmentation or genital reconstruction. More than 85 companies consider these procedures to be coverable expenses under their employee health plans. Whether these measures can be attributed to the efforts of transgender rights groups or to obtain the Corporate Equality Index's coveted 100% rating, they are measures we can celebrate.

The Corporate Equality Index, a report published by the Human Rights Campaign, rates American companies and businesses on their treatment of LGBT employees and investors. Company policy and its implications are researched as part of the report, though much of the data comes from surveys. The CEI has been published since 2002, and later this year the HRC is expected at add surgery-inclusive medical benefits for transgender dependents as well as employees as a criteria on their corporate diversity report card.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

As I sit down to write this blog, I’m pulled in so many different directions trying to decide on what topic to write. I can’t seem to choose just one; there is too much going on in the world for me to say one subject is more important than another. In my opinion, they all deserve attention, not only to bring awareness, but to spark initiative within someone to start a movement.

A bill being considered in South Dakota would allow the murder of abortion providers, by pardoning the crime as "justifiable homicide." The re-defining of terms, that have been forever clear and understood, by the GOP continues; previously it was rape and what constituted the act, now the conservative forces are reconsidering murder.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Once again Pro-life (really Anti-choice) fights back with feelings instead of facts with its attachment of the “Protect Life Act”, a provision recently added to H.R. 358, which was introduced by Representative Joe
Pitts of Pennsylvania. The act will effectively allow doctors to refuse medical aid (abortions) to pregnant women even if in doing so it is understood the mother will die.

Perhaps ultra-conservatives need another science lesson after last term’s blatant obstinacy of reality, with recurring incidents such as Rep. Michelle Bachmann’s (MN) declaration that carbon dioxide is in no form harmful; except for Carbon Dioxide Poisoning, which causes minor afflictions like death, and ironically SIDS (Sudden infant death syndrome).

So here it is in nine words; if a pregnant woman dies the fetus cannot live.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Typically when one thinks of a gamer (and I don’t mean the person who plays an occasional game on their console), they think of a nerdy, unkempt, male. The key idea here is that it is typically a male being thought of as being a gamer. A quick image search of the word ‘gamer’ turns up pictures of the previous description, with the occasional picture of a female playing a game. It’s very rare that a woman is thought of, or associated with being a gamer and when she is she doesn’t always have the most “feminine” qualities attributed to her; her friends and fellow players tend to see her as ‘one of the boys’. On the other side of the scale are the female gamers who, maybe to the untrained eye, don’t seem like they would be interested in playing a game targeted towards men or any game at all. If there is a woman playing a game, who doesn’t fall into the ‘typical’ category of a gamer, it’s assumed she isn’t playing the game because she enjoys it, but more so to get something (i.e. attention) in return for playing.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act was introduced into the house on the 20th of January 2011 by Republican Chris Smith of New Jersey . One-hundred and seventy-three members of the House (13 of who are women) are in support of this bill that would change the definition of rape as we know it and push back the rights women have worked so hard to achieve. In section 309 it states that, “If the pregnancy occurred because the pregnant female was the subject of an act of forcible rape,” she is allowed to receive an abortion paid for by taxpayers.By choosing the language “forcible” rape, the bill makes readers wonder when rape isn’t forced. If a person has intercourse with another without their consent, by force or otherwise, it is still rape. The topic gets a little mucky when drinking is brought into play; however, if someone is not in their correct frame of mind, meaning if they are drunk or under the influence of drugs, and someone takes advantage of them, that is rape. The authors of the bill are dismissing what survivors of rape go through. What happens to the women whos experiences don’t fall under the catergory of “forcible rape”? Do they not matter ? I’m straying from my original point, but I think an issue rising from this bill is the attempt to redefine what qualifies, and apparently doesn’t qualify, as rape.

About UMass Dartmouth Center for Women, Gender & Sexuality

Since 1970 The UMass D Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality has been serving our community. We are here to offer education, information, friendship, support, conversation, entertainment, encouragement and insight!
We are located on the 2nd floor of Campus Center, between SAIL and the Torch office.
For more information
visit: www.umassd.edu/cwgs
Call: 508.910.4584

MVP Powder Puff Game

The following are the picture taken at the first ever UMass Dartmouth Mentors in Violence Prevention Powder Puff game! Thank you to all the women who participated, and all the men and women who came to cheer us on.